In Sweden, the Port of Gothenburg has set out an ambitious target to reduce shipping emissions by 70 percent within the port area by 2030. One key step to reach this goal is to provide a variety of shipping fuels that contribute to reducing emissions – in the port as well as on a global scale. Methanol is seen as one such low-carbon marine fuel.
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Numerous net-zero vessel initiatives from shipping operators and vessel owners around the world are now in the order books.
For Port Authorities, this means having to ensure that fuel bunkering infrastructure and services are in place to meet the growing demand for low carbon marine fuels such as methanol.
The Gothenburg Port Authority has released general methanol operating regulations for ship-to-ship bunkering.
From the Port of Gothenburg, we want to support this by enabling these vessels to take bunker at their convenience. Therefore, we are happy to share that we have received acceptance from the Swedish Transport Agency for the general methanol operating regulations for ship-to-ship bunkering, said Christoffer Lillhage, Senior Business Development Manager Energy at the Gothenburg Port Authority.
As this is a general approval for the port, each terminal will conduct a supplementary risk assessment but this is more of a formality when the general guidelines now are in place.
This work has been finalized after great support from Saeed Mohebbi from the Swedish Transport Agency. His knowledge and support have been very valuable, said Christoffer Lillhage.
Methanol handled since 2015
The Port of Gothenburg has handled methanol in the port since 2015 when Stena Line started to bunker Stena Germanica truck to vessel.
Now we hope to see Maersk, X-press Feeders, and many other shipping lines routing their new methanol vessels to the North of Europe and we would be delighted to welcome them with open arms to the largest port in Scandinavia, said Elvir Dzanic, CEO at the Gothenburg Port Authority.
X-Press Feeders is the world´s largest independent feeder carrier, and one of the major players dedicated to introducing methanol as a shipping fuel on a larger scale already in 2023.
With the introduction of eight state-of-the-art 1 170 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) container ships capable of being operated on carbon-neutral methanol, X-Press Feeders is soon one step closer to reaching its target of having net-zero emissions from operations by 2050.
I am happy to see that the Port of Gothenburg is working proactively to facilitate the bunkering of Methanol. It is encouraging as we need the ports to be ready when we are to decide where to route our first line of methanol propelled vessels, said Sven Siemsen Senior Manager Marketing Europe at X-Press Feeders.
Develop large-scale methanol storage
The shipping industry needs a variety of fuels in the future, and renewable products like eMethanol are one important fuel to reach net-zero targets.
Together with industry front runners in the field of E-fuels such as Liquid Wind and their partner Ørsted, we are working to make this a reality, said Christoffer Lillhage.
Therefore, the Port of Gothenburg is also making arrangements to set up a value chain with the determination to provide eMethanol in the port by 2024.
We are also planning for large-scale storage of methanol with storage operators in the port when the demand is in place. We encourage methanol producers and stakeholders in the industry to reach out and start a dialog with the Port of Gothenburg as we have set the aim to become a bunker and storage hub for methanol/eMethanol, Christoffer Lillhage said.
We are pleased to see that ship-to-ship methanol bunkering and infrastructure will come to reality in the Port of Gothenburg. This is a strong benefit for carriers planning to buy our green electro-fuel, eMethanol. It enables Liquid Wind and our value chain collaborators to establish multiple production facilities in Sweden and other Nordic countries said Claes Fredriksson, CEO, and founder of Liquid Wind.
A strong and leading eMethanol hub in Gothenburg accelerates our ability to market and distribute our carbon-neutral marine fuel to the world. It also puts Sweden in the global fuel export market, ended Claes Fredriksson.
